Economy

Given the support provided by Abenomics, that Japan nonetheless fell into recession last year was a surprise and a worry. A long-planned increase in the national sales tax, carried out in April, hit consumers harder than the government and most economists had expected, calling the effectiveness of Mr. Abe’s approach into question. Wages are still falling, adjusted for inflation, and many workers feel left out.

The bulk collection of data — started under President George W. Bush, continued under Obama and publicly confirmed in the leaks from Edward Snowden — changed the relationship tech and communications businesses have with the federal government, and specifically with the intelligence community. While most of the largest U.S. telecoms allowed the National Security Agency access to their lines and switches — in exchange for fees or under threat of losing government contracts — the “openness” of U.S. communications networks to U.S. intelligence has large international players looking for more secure options.

We are pretty much the only country on the planet that teaches math this way, where students are forced to memorize formulas and procedures. And so kids miss the more organic experience of playing with mathematical puzzles, experimenting and searching for patterns, finding delight in their own discoveries. Most students learn to detest — or at best, endure — math, and this is why our students are falling behind their international peers.

In a press conference this morning, transportation secretary Anthony Foxx and FAA administrator Michael Huerta both refused to say when they thought the new proposed rule might actually be implemented–probably because it could take years. Foxx and Huerta also dodged questions about how the FAA would even be able to know if rules are being violated. Huerta said the FAA’s first focus is on ensuring people know what the rules are.

But some lawmakers here worry that the surge bill goes beyond what the state can afford during a time when oil revenues are drastically falling. A joint legislative committee released a revised revenue forecast in January, predicting that oil and gas tax revenues would drop to roughly $4 billion over the next two years. Last December, budget forecasters had predicted the number would be closer to $8 billion.

Innovations in subsea processing equipment could drop the more than $100-a-barrel cost for offshore oil recovery by about 30 percent by 2020, according to William Blair’s Heymann. That could help turn what is now a $30 billion equipment market into a $150 billion industry by the middle of the next decade, he estimates. Processing equipment separates the output from the well into oil, gas and water, before transporting the product.

Don’t look now but the anti-fossil fuel movement is quickly building momentum. Climate activists have campaigned against oil, gas, and coal for years. And while legislation in the U.S. Congress addressing climate change seems as remote as ever, outside of the beltway the anti-fossil fuel movement is building support at a breakneck pace. Consider the series of wins that environmentalists continue to rack up. The Keystone XL pipeline seemed destined for approval several years ago with an oil-friendly Secretary of State in Hillary Clinton and a largely indifferent President in the White House. That all changed when environmental groups led by 350.org made the project a defining issue for the Obama administration. Nearly five years after protests began, the pipeline appears close to being killed off for good.

Look hard enough, and you can see it in the oil patch, too. In recent decades, the oil industry—especially in the U.S.—has evolved from a brute-force industry into a nimbler high-tech manufacturing one. Fracking—a new drilling technology developed primarily in the U.S.—propelled the shale revolution. And technology-based companies don’t respond to falling market prices by cutting production or shutting down. Rather, they innovate and experiment to bring down the cost of production and operations, push suppliers for lower prices, and hold down costs. If the market won’t keep the market price above the break-even price, you can stop producing—or you can try to lower the break-even price.

Gold & Silver

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This article laments that Japan's economy is not growing fast enough and that heaven's forbid housing investment is dropping. Why the devil should a country have to "expand GNP!!!" when its population is decreasing and its working age population is plummeting and wherein there is so much excess housing much is already vacant. I dont quibble with reporting the problem of young people having difficulty finding jobs etc. (but I think America is in worse shape, especially in this regards and also in disparity between rich and poor).

We need to start thinking about stationary growth and abandon our exponential growth religion. Such MSM articles teach away from focus on the real problem (how to shift from exponential to stationary growth).

I think that Japan is the first test case and can illuminate the process, but these kind of articles do a disservice by promoting the false religion instead.